Olivia BLOCK
“Innocent Passage in the Territorial Sea”

From Olivia
During the lockdown, unable to do anything in the world, I turned inward, adopting a regular practice of listening with intention while on psychedelic mushrooms. The mushrooms helped me to listen somatically, pulling my ears towards low tonal patterns and the warped sounds of a broken Mellotron I had recorded earlier.

I started playing in my studio, creating bass-driven pieces on my vintage Korg synth organ, using a very limited tonal palette.

The pandemic seemed like a strange dream or a surrealistic science fiction story. As a thought-exercise, I imagined this moment as a film; a mental lens through which I could conceive of this pandemic and all of the complex factors which converged to make it happen.

I approached this music as the soundtrack to this speculative science fiction film, an attempt to translate my emotions.

Composed and performed by Olivia Block in 2021 on Korg CX3 organ, Organelle, tapes, field recordings and Mellotron.
Mellotron was recorded at Electrical Audio, Chicago, engineered by Greg Norman.
Mastering and some mixing by Tomas Korber.